Fear Itself
by Alcarcalime Losse
Summary: The first in the Dark Creatures series. In the Marauders' fourth year, DADA Professor Timothy Harper must teach his students how to defend themselves against these Dark Creatures. How will he react to having one of these in his own class? Implied slash


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

AN: This is the first in the Dark Creatures series and takes place in early November of the Marauders' fourth year.**

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**Dark Creatures: Fear Itself**

Professor Timothy Harper surveyed the group of students in front of him. The rest of the class were still in his classroom under the careful watch of one of his NEWT students, Synthia Philips, who planned to go into teaching after Hogwarts. This wasn't the way he had intended teaching this class bu the Headmaster had insisted on that point. His fourth years had just started their OWL unit on Dark Creatures and were today studying Boggarts. At the start of the double lesson he had instructed them all on the proper defence and incantation to use against a Boggart before leaving them to take notes and answer questions from the textbook while he took each dorm group of students to an abandoned classroom to encounter their greatest fears.

He was now with his third group of students – the Gryffindor boys. _This should be interesting, _he thought to himself. He couldn't believe that Dumbledore expected him to teach a Dark Creature in his class – among ordinary children! As if he could ever learn Defence _Against_ the Dark Arts – the whole idea was laughable but the Headmaster had made it very clear that his job here depended on it. Even so, he was not happy with the situation.

Harper briefly revised what they were to do before moving to the back of the room and taking a seat. He instructed Potter to go first and opened to door to reveal the Boggart within.

James swallowed nervously and then stepped forwards. Even though he only had to do this in front of his friends and the Professor and he knew that the Boggart couldn't actually harm him, he was still quite apprehensive.

As he approached, the Boggart began to change its shape and James found himself looking at an enlarged form of the grass snake he had found in his back garden when he was around four years old. Not quite realising what it was, he had picked it up to look at it when it had suddenly opened its jaws wide and lunged at him. He had dropped the snake and ran back inside to his mother. But he hadn't been able to forget the terror he had felt at that moment.

James snapped out of the memory and brought his attention back to the task at hand, imagining the snake fading away until all that was left was the skin which then crumbled into dust, before shouting "Riddikulus!"

The Boggart did just what he had imagined and was defeated.

"Well done Potter – that's how it's done. Ten points to Gryffindor." Harper congratulated as James moved back to where his friends were standing, watching.

"Lupin, you next." Harper instructed, the distaste evident in his voice.

Remus sighed as he moved towards the Boggart – Professor Harper was just like the others, the Defence professors were usually the worst even though they should know better than the rest of the staff but Remus could tell that they all hated him because of what he was. They couldn't show it openly in class but he could always feel the hatred held just under the surface.

The Defence professor in his first year had been different, however. Professor Omara hadn't treated him any different from the others, hadn't looked at him with hatred and disgust in her eyes. Instead there was pity and somehow that was almost worse.

Ever since that year, they had all been the same – a new one every year.

He suspected that the Headmaster had made Professor Harper hold the lesson this way to prevent anyone getting suspicious of him. Remus didn't know what his Boggart would become but he thought it likely that it would be related to his condition.

And he was right. Remus stepped forward and froze as he saw what the Boggart had become.

The Marauders and Professor Harper looked on in horror as they saw Moony viciously attack Sirius, then James, Peter and someone who must have been Remus' mother before Sirius, seeing that Remus had frozen – staring at the Boggart and shaking – stepped forwards and pulled Remus away from the Boggart to the opposite corner of the room where they sat down.

Harper, seeing this, quickly moved forwards and banished the Boggart back into the next room. Of all the things he had expected this wasn't one of them. That this creature should care so much for the others and that he specifically feared doing harm to them – well, given his condition it was a surprise. Perhaps Harper had been wrong about him – this experience had certainly led him to see the boy – yes, the _boy_ – in a different light.

He looked to the back of the classroom to see Black trying to comfort the student in question and Pettigrew and Potter standing a little way off, looking concerned. Seeing the way the b-, that _Lupin_ had reacted Harper was glad he had at least these three. He decided he would try to change how he treated them from now on, now that he had seen this side to them. He had just trusted what he had read and what he had been taught as a child – as most people did, he reasoned. But he was obviously wrong in this case and he wanted to make up for it now that he knew the truth.

He would start now.

Instead of sending the boys back into the classroom and calling in the next group, he dismissed the class, explaining that the other groups would face the Boggart in their next lesson. He knew that his students would simply assume that the boys had been messing around and were being kept behind to receive the details of their punishment. Harper wasn't going to correct them.

After his students had made a note of their homework, packed up and left, he made his way back into the side room. Lupin and Black were still huddled in a corner of the room but Lupin seemed to have calmed down significantly now.

Harper moved slightly closer to the two of them as they looked up at him, not knowing quite what to expect, looking slightly fearful and defensive as though expecting him to lash out at them. But that wasn't what happened.

"I've dismissed the rest of the class so we won't have to get back to them," he explained. "They don't know what happened in here." Harper paused, then spoke directly to Lupin, "Are you alright now?"

The boys seemed shocked at the concern evident in his voice and Lupin only nodded, unable to verbalise his answer in his confusion.

Timothy Harper saw the confusion caused by his simple question and was disappointed. _Had he really been that bad?_ Yes, he decided, he had. All the more reason to make up for his behaviour.

He moved over and crouched down facing Lupin.

"We won't be facing that Boggart again. It won't be on the practical OWL exam anyway, I just thought that the experience would help you all in the written exam. I-" he broke off and sighed. "I'm sorry this had to happen to you like this, I had no idea that this would happen."

Lupin looked up at this as he had been looking down at the floor until now, "I'm sorry for making a scene, I don't want to cause any trouble." He replied rather quietly.

"Don't worry about that, it's not your fault. To be honest, perhaps I should have anticipated that something like this would happen. I'm sorry for not realising that earlier and I'm sorry for treating you the way I have been. Today made me realise how wrong I've been and I apologise for that."

From the corner of his eye, he could see the other three boys look shocked at his admission. But he wasn't focused on what _they_ thought.

Lupin seemed to think about what he had said for a moment before nodding and replying, "Thank you."

Harper nodded. "You can all stay here until you're ready to leave," he said, noticing that they all still seemed somewhat distressed. "I'll talk to Professor Slughorn – you won't have to go to your next lesson if you don't feel up to it."

Harper stood up seeing the boys' grateful looks. Black thanked him as he walked over to Lupin and helped him to his feet.

As the four of them left the classroom, Harper caught the grateful and relieved look on Lupin's face before the door closed again. He sighed and headed back into his office, sitting down at his desk. He would have to go over the practical with the rest of the class due to that... _unexpected_ occurrence.

Harper thought again of the four boys from earlier. As well as what had just happened, he had heard of their reputation as the school's troublemakers. _Yes,_ he thought, _this is going to be an interesting year._


End file.
